Wilton Pereira Sampaio, a World Cup official, did not perform to the level you would have expected during England’s quarterfinal loss to France, according to former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher.
On Saturday night at the Al Bayt Stadium, France, the defending champions, secured a 2-1 victory, ending England’s hopes of winning their first World Cup since 1966.
Despite Bukayo Saka appearing to be fouled, France was allowed to break and took the lead in minute 17 through Aurelien Tchouameni.
With a powerful penalty kick, Harry Kane tied Wayne Rooney’s record for most goals scored for England (53), but France regained the lead 12 minutes later thanks to Olivier Giroud, a former Arsenal and Chelsea striker.
The quarterfinal match looked like it would go into overtime after England was given a late penalty, but the usually dependable Kane missed his attempt.
The English team was displeased with referee Sampaio during the game, and they have since criticized him, calling his performance “a joke.”
Sampaio “didn’t produce on the day,” according to ex-referee Gallagher, who also thinks it was a clear error not to give England a free kick for the foul on Saka that occurred before France’s goal.
According to Gallagher, Sky Sports believes it is a foul. He believes there was no room for doubt because the foul was obvious.
The assistant, who is directly in front of it and is extremely close, has a perfect view if the referee is blind to it. Everyone would have agreed with the decision if the assistant had raised a flag.
The subsequent issue is that there are 25 seconds between the incident and the goal by France. VAR would never go back that far, as we are aware from experience in the Premier League. VAR’s purpose is not for that.
No matter whether Sampaio was nervous or the situation got to him, he [Sampaio] didn’t perform how you would expect a ref at that level to perform.
After the Three Lions were eliminated by France, Harry Maguire of England was one of many to criticize the official.
